How 'Star Wars: Bounty Hunter' Answered One Of 'Attack Of The Clones' Biggest Questions
Sixteen years after the release of Return of the Jedi, seemingly the final chapter of George Lucas' space opera, he released the first of his prequel trilogy, The Phantom Menace. This new trilogy would focus on a young Anakin Skywalker and map his descent to the dark side of the Force, becoming the villainous Darth Vader. George also used his new trilogy to show us how the Empire and Emperor rose to power, and the tragic near extinction of the Jedi Order, but the new films left fans with some questions as new introductions were made, with very little background.
Episode II - Attack of the Clones is often deemed the weakest of the prequels, and for some, the weakest overall. This is often attributed to it creating a few plot holes in the overall story of the saga. During the course of the film, Obi-Wan Kenobi travels to the planet Kamino and discovers a clone army is being created for the Republic, at the behest of fallen Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas. Although it is brought to the attention of the Jedi Council, no one really seems that concerned by it, and so the story continues, with the clones eventually turning on their Jedi comrades and wiping all but a few them out in the next film. We also learn that the bounty hunter Jango Fett is who is used as a genetic template for the clones, but the burning question a lot of fans had was, just how did that come about? It seemed that the character was created purely to serve as a plot device and nothing more. Well, it turns out a video game released to tie in with the movie actually answered the question. So today, we are going to look at how it came to be.
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The video game in question is called Star Wars: Bounty Hunter and was released in late 2002 by LucasArts. If you haven't played it, you have been warned that some SPOILERS lie ahead. The game is set years before the events of Attack of the Clones, and players control Jango Fett as the main character during his bounty hunting days. He receives various contracts throughout the game, but the main one is for the capture of Komari Vosa, a former Jedi now operating as a drug lord.
Due to Vosa's operations threatening the plans of Darth Sidious, his apprentice Count Dooku, puts a bounty on Vosa's head. His intentions were to offer the successful hunter the tremendous honor of being the template for the creation of a clone army for the Republic. Jango sets out to win this prize, with the help of his associate Roz, but he's not the only one looking to win. Throughout the course of the game, players must use all of Jango's skills to be successful and beat the competition, which of course he does. Finally defeating Vosa, Jango is offered the prize by Dooku, who goes by Darth Tyrannus in the game. This gives credence to a throwaway line from the movie, in which Jango states he was hired by a man named Tyrannus on one of the moons of Bogda, as this actually happens at the end of the game.
The story of the game perfectly answers why Jango was chosen as the template, however it also further expands on some of the main saga's characters, adding a different view to them. For example, throughout the game, Jango is shown to be a very lonely character longing to be part of something. This is what ultimately drives his request for an unaltered clone of his own, thus giving Boba a genuine heart-felt orgin story as well.
We also see a different side to Dooku. Although very much a villain in the film series, the TV show The Clone Wars and this game give him a bit more character development. Vosa was actually an apprentice to Dooku and the only reason she was able to amass as much power as she did, was because Dooku refused to kill her when he had the chance. This crops up again during TCW when he doesn't take action against his apprentice Asajj Ventress. It further serves to highlights the conflict within him, showing he actually is quite a tragic character and not just a general villain. His compassion is used by Sidious to berate him often and used against him due to Sidious seeing it as a sign of weakness.
The game itself, aside from answering some question and further expanding on established characters, is actually really quite fun to play and a worthy contender for one of the best Star Wars games. As well as the main story, players have the option to complete side missions involving collecting bounty's not related to the main story. You also get to utilize Jango's jetpack, grappler wire, poison darts and other weapons from the film series to go up against some really interesting characters and monsters.
Sadly, the game has never really had any updates apart from being made digitally available from the PlayStation Store for PlayStation 3 and 4, but with its impressive fanbase and the continuation of The Mandalorian, plus the new upcoming series The Book of Boba Fett, it's possible the game could receive a revamp to tie in with the new media. It would certainly seem like a smart move.
Although the game isn't considered canon anymore, the amount of information it gives, along with answering some of the biggest questions from Attack of the Clones, and tying up a lot of loose ends, many fans may happily still consider this to be Jango's definitive backstory.
Until next time!
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Source(s): Screen Rant